image taken off of www.stevechandler.com If you haven’t read ONE of his books yet, you owe it to yourself to pick one up. After the first book, i won’t have to ask you to read the next. =)
Steve Chandler is the first person I’ve ever heard discuss this topic, and — while this is my spin on it — I also invite you to visit his site and buy his book, Time Warrior. We’re all told to set goals AND to write them down. But, have you ever felt like a business goal actually worked against you? Like every time you looked at it – you were reminded not how far you’d come, but how far you still had to go? Like there was more to DO than to celebrate?
Even if you’ve never felt that way exactly, each of us can make a specific goal more “do-able” by taking our GOAL and turning it into a PROJECT. First, let’s look at the difference between the two.
A goal is simply an “aim or desired result”, a destination, the end point – and of course this, in and of itself, is of incredible importance. A project, on the other hand, is defined as something that “is carefully planned and designed to achieve a particular aim”.
So, essentially, no goal will ever be reached if it isn’t turned into a project first. Sound overly simplistic? Great. Let’s break it down even further. What would it mean for each of us if we took our monthly or yearly income goal and made it into a project?
First, when we break down our annual goal into monthly, weekly and daily steps, we can win every day. Next, it means we’ll have a plan we can implement and work towards each and every day. A goal alone, however can be a dangerous threat to our success because it stays “INcomplete” for far too long – even if we are working towards it. There is no drain on our energy that compares to the weight of uncompleted tasks. (As a side note, if you’ve ever been lured into the trap of procrastination, this realization may help you get out: It takes FAR MORE energy to “carry” an uncompleted task than it takes to actually finish it. Just a side note.) Okay, so how can we use all of this to accomplish more? How can we transform our income or business goals into projects? Here are some Simple Rules to Accomplishing MORE.
- Give your goals a deadline. Truthfully we should consider deadlines as life lines because they give our end result goal the power to come alive in today’s reality. A deadline will bring our future goal into our present time frame – where we can take action to make it a reality.
- Work backwards and build consistently toward the realization of your goal. If your goal is to make $100,000 this year, that means you have to make (roughly) $8333 a month, or about $2099 a week. What must you accomplish each week or day to make this a reality?
- Defy and defeat distractions. When you need to accomplish something, set aside protected time to complete it and eliminate any other possible distractions. When a plane is taking off of the ground, it can not afford the energy and time drain of a bunch of starts and stops… stop and go. Neither can we. Distractions destroy our productivity and costs us dearly in lost momentum. Because you’ve given yourself a deadline, your time is no longer just your own. Some of it now belongs – appropriately – to your new project of goal achievement. A few practical ideas here: Turn off that beeping sound you hear when a new email message arrives in your in-box. Check mail at specified times only. Turn the ringer off of your phone and schedule a time to return phone calls. If you work in a public place (like a coffee shop) bring headphones – regardless of whether or not you are listening to anything. People are less likely to interrupt or initiate small talk with a person when they are wearing earphones. Set yourself up for success. Work in the best place available to you – one where you will have the least amount of distractions.
- Always know what comes next. When you are working towards something, it is important to know how what you are working on right now contributes to your goal – turned – project as a whole. This increases motivation and builds momentum.
- Chunk “like” tasks together. It is not enough to simply plan your day. That is a start, but if your goals are big enough, planning alone will not do the trick. Plan for optimal efficiency by chunking “like” tasks together – rather than responding to one email, taking a phone call, going back to email and then taking a sales appointment…. consider scheduling a chunk of time to respond to all emails and another chunk of time to take phone calls, etc.
- Do only one thing at a time. We all remember when “multi-tasking” was a buzz word that many gurus preached to corporations and small businesses and executives and parents alike. But, when you are really up to something important, it deserves protected time and priority. When you are committed to achieving something incredible, it deserves (and demands) your full attention. Those who routinely reach their goals, do so by regularly blocking off time during which that goal is the ONLY thing on their proverbial plate. So, the new – and much less trendy – word in goal achievement is FOCUS.
- Set up systems for things that get done repeatedly in your business. Perhaps you can create a general template for responding to client or partner inquiries – a standard response you can customize for each person. It’s a great idea to have a system in place for things such as generating referrals, leveraging networking contacts, or product development. When things are systemized, you know exactly what will happen, when and by whom. When things are systemized, they will get done.
